Riga to host ‘Eastern Partnership survival summit’

During a public event organised by the European Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on 26 February 2015, Latvia's foreign affairs minister considered the Eastern Partnership Summit his country was scheduled to hold on 21-22 May 2015 to be a 'survival summit', due to the difficulties the European Union faced in dealing with its Eastern neighbours.

The Eastern Partnership initiative covers Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The last summit had taken place in November 2013 and marked the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis when Viktor Yanukovich, the former President of Ukraine, refused to sign a landmark Association Agreement with the EU.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Latvia: EU Presidency, January - June 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/latvia-eu-presidency-january-june-2015/

ESO: Key Source: Eastern Partnership http://www.europeansources.info/record/website-eastern-partnership/

EUObserver, 15.04.15: The undying 'last' dictatorships of Europe https://euobserver.com/opinion/128317

EUObserver, 07.05.15: EU to deepen ties with former Soviet states https://euobserver.com/foreign/128614

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